Intro:

This project was definitely one to remember. I don’t think I ever spent so much time doing something as much as this project. And although at times it seemed difficult and that my group was getting nowhere. We got through, and this project was a great success. This project was completely Open Ended. We choose which demographic to target and what to do and how we do it. The demographic that we chose was individuals with diabetes, and our product was an automatic fridge door closer

Skills I learned/developed:

☑️ Circuit building

☑️ Prototype design

☑️ Critical Thinking

☑️ Concept generation

☑️ How to pitch a product

☑️ Python Raspberry Pi coding

Process:

• After initially deciding what our demographic would be (individuals with Alzheimer), we began concept generation, many concepts were generated but after many discussions, we decided to pursue an automatic door locker.

Concept sketch for Automatic door locker

• My team and I were really confident in this idea. But as we kept pursuing it. I started realizing the amount of issues and design flaws that it has. And so we started asking for feedback. And then we had one discussion which changed it all…

InsuLatch Fridge Guardian

• Fridges would be an excellent other choice to pursue. Nobody likes when their fridge is left open, and people with diabetes actually store insulin in their fridge and so if their fridge was left open the insulin would be of no use. An automatic fridge closer would help solve that problem
• And so with limited time left (since we spent so much thinking of the first idea) we got to work. I was on the coding team so my partner and I had to build the circuit board and code the process that would activate the mechanism based on the distance the fridge door had been opened by.